Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BULGARIA has come under fire for failing to effectively reform its shoddy mental hospitals, which have been described by a human rights group as “dumping grounds where people are robbed of the right to any activity and wait only to die”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has designed a field trial for a proposed rapid BSE detection test for live animals, that could significantly reduce culling following an outbreak. EFSA’s Scientific Expert Working Group on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) wants to add a rapid live test to five rapid post mortem tests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUSPENSION of chicken product imports into the European Union (EU) of chicken products and birds from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam will remain until March 31, 2005. The extension, (from December), of the bird flu ban was confirmed by the EU’s Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A new and potentially influential advisory body concerned with food safety in the European Union has been set up by the European Commission. The Advisory Group on the Food Chain and Animal and Plant Health will mirror the reach of the Commission’s “farm to fork” food safety policies by including in its membership the food production and processing industries, retailers and farmers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S small shops and off-licences can expect no help from the incoming European Commission in their fight against personal alcohol and tobacco imports. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire ahead of assuming office in November, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre promised to take a strong line on efforts to restrict this trade, assuming she is confirmed as taxation and customs union Commissioner.…

By Alan Osborn
The European Commission has created a new food safety advisory group that seems likely to become a focus for the development of policy acceptable to all the major players in this sector. The new Advisory Group on the Food Chain and Animal and Plant Health will bring together representatives of farmers, food processors and manufacturers, retailers and consumers and as such will mirror the “farm to fork” approach to policy taken by the Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ‘HALF-TIME’ agreement on the current World Trade Organisation (WTO) round struck over the weekend in Geneva is an exercise in setting red lines, so that rich and poor countries protect their key interests.

This so-called ‘framework’ deal struck at the WTO general council includes just enough numbers to guarantee poor countries there will be a significant reduction in developed world food production subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COTTON production will be a future key focus of the ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Round, member countries have agreed in Geneva. A half-time ‘framework’ agreement commits developed countries slashing at least 20% from all “trade distorting support” for agriculture (which includes cotton growing), including schemes limiting production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the takeover by Swiss food packaging giant Tetra Laval of Italian food and drink filling and packaging company SIG Simonazzi.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RISK that American cattle are infected with BSE is high, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded, and without changes to US rendering or feeding practice, “the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with BSE persistently increases”.…